Inclusion

Inclusion at Loose Primary School

Loose Primary School maintains an inclusive approach to education and we aim to provide equality of opportunity for all children. All children are valued, respected and welcomed to the school whatever their additional educational need. (This may mean a specific learning, physical, behavioural and emotional, communication and language or health need.) More able children , children who have English as an additional language and those on our pupil premium register are also recognised as having additional needs. There may also be stressful times such illness, bereavement and family breakdowns when families and children require support. We will support their learning and ensure they are fully included in all school activities.

We recognise that there are some pupils who may require additional resources or extra support at some time in their primary school life and we aim to cater for the needs of all pupils. Early identification of a child’s needs is made by close consultation with parents and pre-school settings from school entry. Individual pupils are monitored through teacher assessment, pupil progress meetings and provision mapping.

The school has an Inclusion Manager, an SEN Lead Teacher and a Families and Community Manager to offer support to parents/carers who may have concerns about their child’s progress.

Special Educational Needs and Disability ( SEND)

The school has a policy for Special Educational Needs (SEN) and follows the Code of Practice. When appropriate, referrals are made to specialist learning services and medical services. Any referral to an outside agency is undertaken with parental consent. Further details can be found in our SEND Local Offer and SEN policy.

The staff work in partnership with parents/carers and pupils and liaise with external agencies to build upon pupil’s strengths and develop the individual.

We promote equality of opportunity for disabled people: pupils, staff, parents, carers and other people who use the school.

We are committed to ensuring that disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum, school trips and take an active role in all extra-curricular activities. The school environment includes designated parking and step free access to the school building. There are designated disabled toilets and grab rails around the school so that pupils can develop independence in self-care skills.

Equalities and Diversity

At Loose Primary we aim to create an inclusive culture for all staff, pupils, families and visitors to the school. We recognise respect and value people’s differences and ensure that individuals or groups of individuals are treated fairly and equally and no less favourably, specific to their needs, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age. We promote equality and diversity treating all staff and students fairly ensuring equal access to opportunities to enable children and staff to fully participate in the learning process and achieve and equip children and staff with the skills to challenge inequality and discrimination.

English as an Additional Language ( EAL)

We celebrate the fact that some of our children speak more than one language. We carefully monitor and track the progress of pupils with EAL to ensure they are not disadvantaged and recognise that they may require additional support to acquire the same competence in English as in their home language(s). This support is provided in class through carefully differentiated work and, where appropriate, through the additional support and specific teaching with a teaching assistant.

Children who are learning English as an additional language have skills and knowledge about language similar to monolingual English-speaking children. Their ability to participate in the full curriculum may be in advance of their communicative skills in English.

At Loose Primary School teachers take action to help children who are learning English as an additional language by various means such as

ensuring that vocabulary work covers the technical as well as the everyday meaning of key words, metaphors and idioms;

displaying key vocabulary and using visual prompts

using ‘Mantra Lingua’ resources such as Talking Dictionaries and Talking Pens.

ensuring that there are effective opportunities for talking, and that talking is used to support writing;

encouraging children to transfer their knowledge, skills and understanding of one language to another;

Children in Need ( ChiC)/Looked After Children

We provide a safe learning environment for our Looked after Pupils ensuring that their individual needs are met by maintaining good communication with those caring for the child, social services and support services. We commit to attending review meetings and ensuring the targets set on Personal Education Plans are integrated into school life.

Loose Primary School’s Provision for Meeting the Needs of all Children

We want the children who attend Loose Primary School to leave us in Year 6 with the skills and positive thinking needed to achieve their ambitions and to lead happy, successful lives. We believe all children’s potential is limitless and encourage children to exceed and challenge their own expectations. We hold this as true for every child who attends our school, regardless of background or ability. Their specific talents and skills need to be nurtured; by providing them with either the opportunities to work at high cognitive levels in academic areas or a chance to aspire for creative or physical excellence, whilst still ensuring the holistic needs of the child are met, in order to provide a well-rounded education. We are committed to providing an environment which encourages all pupils to pursue a high level of performance in academic and non-academic areas.

We aim to encourage pupils to be independent learners, provide challenging work at an appropriate level and provide opportunities for pupils to work with like-minded peers both within school and the wider community.

Provision for pupils is through quality first teaching, differentiation and high challenge in the classroom, teacher expectation of pupil performance and additional learning in interventions.

Loose Primary is active and has strong links with the Extended Learning Network. This means we not only work closely with local primary schools but also with local secondary schools. There are constant opportunities for pupils to attend inter school competitions and workshops on a local level and even a national level for art and sport as well as academic subjects.

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy of mastery teaching and learning aims to maximise opportunities and develop the children’s confidence, so they can challenge themselves and take risks. Through mastery, learning is embedded by application, reasoning, evaluation and critique of skills. Our belief in ‘Potential is Limitless’ promotes increased performance across the board, lifting the aspirations of pupils, teachers and support staff, preventing the capping of learning.

We believe in treating pupils as individuals, providing an education that is suited to their particular needs and abilities.

High Expectations

Our mantra, ‘Potential is Limitless’, applies to all areas of the curriculum. In order to achieve our aims and vision, staff, governors and pupils must have the highest of expectations.

We aim to include the following elements in every learning opportunity throughout the day:

Deepening Thinking – skills are embedded to enable deep understanding linking concepts, ideas and ability to apply new learning. Creating a questioning environment, where a wide range of open questions and activities are designed to extend thinking and children challenge themselves.

Independent Learning- modelling and guiding pupils by all adults in the classroom, using the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach.

Learning and Progress – what do the children know by the end of the learning opportunity that they did not know at the beginning? Focused learning intentions, clear steps to success and work matched to pupils’ individual starting points enable children to make good/outstanding progress.

Challenging Expectations – challenge matched to ability is integral to each learning opportunity. Adults will use assessment for learning when teaching to extend questioning, and move children’s learning on as knowledge and understanding becomes embedded.

Engagement of Learners – pupils are motivated and enthused to learn. A range of practical resources, problem solving activities, investigations and collaboration opportunities are incorporated into teaching. Throughout the day there is pace and rigour and children are able to apply new learning.

Provision

The main focus is to embed learning and enable deep understanding in day-to-day teaching and learning. Enrichment consists of broadening a pupil’s education. This can consist of enabling a pupil to study aspects of topic that there would not normally be time to study, or it can consist of adding extra learning experiences.

Extension occurs when pupils are encouraged to develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills.

Mastery, extension and enrichment are built into all our schemes of work across all curriculum areas.

Types of Provision and Learning Opportunities

Class provision:

All classrooms have learning walls and display learning intentions, steps to success and challenge.

Teachers have high expectations.

Teaching is personalised, ‘pacy’ and challenging.

Lessons are designed to take account of levels of existing knowledge, skills and understanding and are differentiated appropriately.

There are planned extension opportunities or open-ended tasks that promote higher order thinking skills.

A variety of grouping is used effectively.

Enrichment of learning and mastery is promoted.

School based provision:

Shared celebration of children’s achievements.

School clubs including sports, arts, music.

School Council, Eco Council, Prefects and Pupil Voice

Enrichment opportunities including specialist days.

Intervention Groups.

Opportunities to learn a variety of musical instruments.

Opportunities for performance and competitive sport.

Partnership with local schools.

Workshops with local primary and secondary schools.

Out of school provision:

We can help children find support, training and clubs for more diverse talents.

Opportunities to enter national schemes/competitions.

Access to opportunities provided by the Maidstone grammar schools.

Ensure close secondary liaison.

We can offer opportunities to outreach programmes through our membership of the Maidstone Extended Learning Network.